Evie
His acceptance of the mantle of her judgment is a testament to his character, one she’d never thought to doubt before. It’s familiar, representative of the man she knows, but the depth of wound he’d caused has cautioned her against that sort of faith - so there is no relief to be felt, no allowance for the temptation to comfort herself that this is the true heart of him. She can’t be that hasty, no matter how she might miss him.
Evie pays him the same attention he’d given her, keeping the emotions on her face minimal and allowing herself time and empty silence to contemplate his response before she gives her own. “Why not simply usher her away? How could that not be your first thought when we know practically nothing about Dahlia? When you admit you were uncertain?” She can’t just accept it like this. There’s something more here on one of these sides - but which one? Dahlia or Maea?
Her hands bleed white around her mug, eyes dropping toward it and away from Hadama’s bowed head to indulge in her moment of cowardice. “Was it to impress Maea? Was it…was it a moment of martyrdom?” She’s a healer, she knows she can’t leave the question unasked - that he might have courted death intentionally, for himself if not others. She isn’t sure what’s worse of the two options; would a peacock display for someone she has irreparably tangled feelings about be more forgivable somehow?
Evie pays him the same attention he’d given her, keeping the emotions on her face minimal and allowing herself time and empty silence to contemplate his response before she gives her own. “Why not simply usher her away? How could that not be your first thought when we know practically nothing about Dahlia? When you admit you were uncertain?” She can’t just accept it like this. There’s something more here on one of these sides - but which one? Dahlia or Maea?
Her hands bleed white around her mug, eyes dropping toward it and away from Hadama’s bowed head to indulge in her moment of cowardice. “Was it to impress Maea? Was it…was it a moment of martyrdom?” She’s a healer, she knows she can’t leave the question unasked - that he might have courted death intentionally, for himself if not others. She isn’t sure what’s worse of the two options; would a peacock display for someone she has irreparably tangled feelings about be more forgivable somehow?
listen carefully to the sound of your loneliness
like a heartbeat that drives you mad
like a heartbeat that drives you mad
